


Candle light, Candle Bright

by thinkingstar



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Cute, Fluff, Gen, Hebrew Prayer, Jewish headcanon, Judaism, Shabbat, definite reform judaism, everything needs judaism, jewish keith (voltron), pre-k/s/l, shabbat is for family, this was supposed to be more shippy than it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-02
Updated: 2016-08-02
Packaged: 2018-07-28 20:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,558
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7655587
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkingstar/pseuds/thinkingstar
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Keith wants something familiar. Something comforting. And the only thing he knows is from a long time ago... but maybe that'll be enough. (Jewish!Keith lights the Shabbat candles with Shiro and Lance... mostly by accident, you understand.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Candle light, Candle Bright

**Author's Note:**

> So! I like having Jewish headcanons. They don't tend to be common. Thus, Keith is Jewish. Possible also Pidge, but she really isn't mentioned in this. This was supposed to be K/S/L but it mostly just turned out... friendshippy. But feel free to wear your shipping goggles! Hopefully I'll manage a shippy fic with Jewish!Keith at some point.

It was hard to estimate sunset when there was no sun. And hard to find the day of the week when hours and days didn't seem to have anything to do when the lights turned off or when they slept. But Keith did his best to count, trying to track hours. Tricky had never stopped him before and he saw no reason to let it stop him at all. Beside his bunk, he marked out twelve hour periods, sunrise and sunset, each day.

There was a touch of irony in it, knowing that he'd never cared on Earth. But space felt different. Bigger, vaster, better. And Keith saw too much every moment. This was something he could do. His fingers paused when he hit the sunrise on what he was cordially calling the fifth day. This was it. This was the time to decide what, exactly, he was doing.

“Keith!” Lance called as he rounded the corner, grinning ear to ear. “Ready for dinner? I've heard it's green again!” He grabbed Keith's wrist before any objection could be made and started to tug him along.

“Not yet,” Keith shifted his weight just enough to stop Lance's tug from doing anything more... not that it stopped Lance. “Look, I've got something to do first,” he huffed. “So just go get started. It's not going to get any greener.”

“What're you doing?” Lance hadn't released his wrist, keeping Keith locked in place. “You've never been late to dinner either. What will Hunk think?” his eyes went wide, dramatic tears threatening to fall. “What will we do without you?”

“The sooner you let me go, the sooner I'll be there,” Keith retorted as he dragged Lance forward a step. “Or is that too complicated for you?”

“How about we do it together?” A shift of his feet and Keith had to catch himself from tumbling down as Lance released him. “So no one worries.”

“Why would they worry less about both of us being gone than just me?” Keith raised an eyebrow. “Your logic... isn't.”

“Why don't you tell me exactly what we're worrying about.” Shiro's voice cut through the hall and both of them, Lance's wide eyes bulging. “Before we start to worry at all.”

“It's nothing.” Keith answered quickly. “I was just informing Lance I'd be late for dinner,” he scowled at Lance, unable to bring that look to bear on Shiro.

“And I said I was going with him,” Lance said, like it was any kind of explanation. Keith bit back a groan as he slapped his forehead.

“Let's finish this, then,” Shiro replied with a wave of his hand. “Lead on, Keith. We'll all eat together. You know how Allura feels about that.” His smile was modulated by the quirk of his eyebrow as they both nodded. “Unless it can wait until after dinner?”

“No.” Keith shook his head. “I have to get the supplies before we eat.” At least that was what he remembered, the little he remembered, of his zaide and bubbe. “The rest is after.” Why he'd said that was a mystery and he could taste his regret in the way Shiro and Lance stared at him.

“The rest?” Shiro was the one to ask, to Keith's visible relief.

“Nothing,” he replied, praying his cheeks weren't as red as his suit. But the replicator was in sight and he quickly pulled up the supplies he needed, or at leas the closet facsimile he could get on an alien ship without speaking or reading the language everything was written in. Out popped two candles, pure white, and a pair of candlesticks that didn't match anything he remembered, blue and white ceramic swirled into purple and black, white stars dotting the top.

“What is all of this?” Lance motioned as Keith gathered up the supplies and turned to head back to his room. “Candles? All of this is about candles?”

“Yes.” Keith replied shortly, letting the rest of Lance's complaints meet only silence.

Not that it stopped Lance. By the time they had reached Keith's quarters, it was obvious that nothing was going to stop him from sharing every single thought he'd ever had about candles, candlesticks, fire, wax and anything else he could relate to the objects in Keith's arms.

“Come back after dinner,” Keith snapped in the moment of silence that followed Lance's occasional need to breath. “And I'll show you.” The words were made of regret the moment they left his mouth.

“Awesome!” Lance grinned like it had been his goal all along. “We'll be there!”

“We?” Shiro's eyebrow had only just lowered when it bounced back up. 

“We.” Lance repeated, nodding eagerly. “Of course, we both helped him get the candles.”

“Helped?” Disbelief colored Keith's voice as he let himself simply stare at Lance.

“Now that it's been decided, let's get dinner before Hunk finishes it!” Lance laughed as he grabbed Keith's wrist with one hand and Shiro's mechanical arm with the other. “I wonder if we could lay down a yellow brick road,” he mused as he tugged them along, oblivious to the look they shared behind his head.

The food was... food, as it always was. There was nothing to be done for that. Keith had nothing to bake with; no flour, no oven. So he eats with them as Lance eagerly expounds about his day. They eat together, as they always do at least once a day.

And with the plates set aside, with Pidge and Hunk heading off together for to do science or whatever it is they do together, Keith stared at Lance and Shiro. He hadn't really expected them to stay. He'd expected Lance to, honestly. But not Shiro.

“Well?” Lance prods expectantly. “Candles?”

“Yes.” Keith grunted as he stood, trying to ignore their steps behind him.

The door to his room hissed open and he knew how it looked before he stepped inside. Because it was empty. It wasn't like he'd brought anything from Earth. But the candlesticks were set up on the small table beside his bed, the candles set inside.

After Lance and Shiro have entered, Keith closes the door and turns off most of the lights. It takes very little effort to ignore Lance's protestations of the darkness of the door. There's enough light to walk to the candlesticks and plenty of light to see them both leaning over his shoulders.

Keith doesn't remember the words as he holds the matches. He doesn't remember the syllables as he breaks one off. He can't remember the prayer as he lights the flame, letting it flicker. He doesn't remember anything at all as he stares at the fire in his hand.

“Is this all?” Lance asks when the second match has scorched Keith's fingers and the third just broken. “Because watching you burn yourself is rather funny, but it doesn't involve the candles.”

An annoyed hiss is all Keith allows as he lights the third match. The flames sputters and leaps as he tries to reach back. How did it start, they all started the same, didn't they? Every prayer stared the same and if he can just remember...

“Baruch ata...” It's Shiro's voice, soft from behind his shoulder, unsure and with all the wrong accents, the wrong sounds, but it's enough and Keith can't help the relieved smile as he lowers the match to the candle and restarts the prayer.

“Baruch ata Adonai Eloheinu melech haolam asher kidishanu bimitzvotav vitzivanu lihadleekner shel Shabbat.” It certainly wasn't the best prayer ever made, the words tripped over themselves and Keith had to restart enough times that it took three more matches to light both candles as he struggled through the unfamiliar Hebrew. But the glow of the flame lit the room in ways nothing else ever had. His shoulder sagged as he turned to thank Shiro.

Which was when he found himself facing an awed pair of paladins. Lance's jaw had dropped and Shiro was smiling, though his eyes were asking questions Keith was sure he didn't have the answer to and never would.

“What... was that?” Lance asked in the way only he could, innocence and shock and confusion all mixed up together to make something that wasn't quite as annoying as he normally was.

“Shabbat,” Shiro answered when it became apparent Keith wasn't going to anytime soon. “How do you know it's Friday?”

“I don't,” Keith admitted. “But it's close.” He hoped. “I had to estimate.”

“Good,” Shiro nodded, setting his hand on Keith's shoulder and giving a squeeze. “Did it help?” And that was the kind of question that didn't have an answer, something he obviously knew as his other hand came up to grab Lance. “Now that they're lit, I'm sure you'll want to be alone.”

And he should have wanted that. Keith always wanted to be alone.

“No.” He shook his head before Shiro had gotten Lance past the end of the bed. “Shabbat's not about being alone.” The words tasted unfamiliar and yet like family, old memories and older thoughts, things no one had ever said but had always believed. “It's about family.”

Shiro smiled and Keith smiled and Lance was always smiling as they sat down on the floor in front of the candles. The silence didn't last long... but the rest of the night lasted long enough.


End file.
